Global Ocean helped SAS to continue its award winning Beach Clean Tour which has been a huge success. Over the course of the project SAS has engaged over 2000 youth volunteers who have removed thousands of kilos of marine litter from beaches across the UK.
A large part of the project was educating beach users about the issue of marine litter and how they can make behavioural change to mitigate their impact. This included teaching volunteers about how they can tackle marine litter through campaigning, SAS has distributed thousands of Think Before You Flush & No Butts on the Beach stickers as well as No Butts on the Beach ashtrays. Giving volunteers the tools to take part in the Return To Offender also means that everybody can take action against the root causes of marine litter and encourage the manufacturers to change their packaging which will ultimately lead to a reduction in marine litter.
Global Ocean has enabled Surfers Against Sewage to continue their award winning Return To Offender Campaign. They have returned 1000 pieces of identifiable marine litter back to the manufacturers asking them to do the following:
To step up 'the anti-littering' message on your products. To look at using less harmful packaging to ensure products can be broken down naturally without putting wildlife at riskTo promote recycling and/or reuse wherever appropriateTo support community beach litter initiatives or anti-litter projects.
The project is proving to be a great success with some notable large international brands contacting us and asking how they can make improvements to their packaging.
Giving volunteers the tools to take part in the Return To Offender Campaign means that everybody can take action against the root causes of marine litter and encourage the manufactures to change their packaging which will ultimately lead to a reduction in marine litter.
A large part of the project was educating beach users about the issue of marine litter and how they can make behavioural change to mitigate their impact. This included teaching volunteers about how they can tackle marine litter through campaigning; SAS has distributed thousands of Think Before You Flush & No Butts on the Beach stickers as well as No Butts on the Beach ashtrays.
At every beach clean and educational talk that SAS facilitates we give volunteers the tools to campaign and spread the message further.
No Butts on the Beach
An estimated 4.5 TRILLION cigarette butts enter the environment every year. Apart from the littering itself, the major issue is the filters. They are not, as commonly thought, made of paper, but cellulose acetate, a type of plastic which persists in the environment for many years. As with many types of marine litter, cigarette ends can be mistaken for food and eaten by marine animals. They have been found in the guts of whales, dolphins, sea birds and turtles where they can leach toxic chemicals, cause inflammation of the animal's digestive system and occasionally (if they cause a blockage of the gut) even death.
The cigarette filters are designed to absorb tar and chemicals such as cadmium, lead and
arsenic. When filters enter the water these chemicals cause pollution by leaching out. Experiments have shown that just one cigarette filter is toxic enough to kill water fleas in eight litres of water (K. Register, 2000.)
Surfers Against Sewage distributes butt bins & stickers to highlight the issue of cigarette butts and ensure that all our volunteers pass the message on!
Think Before You Flush
Every day people are flushing objects such as cotton buds, sanitary products, condoms
and razors down the toilet instead of putting them in the bin. Known in the business as
sewage related debris or SRD, this can have a huge impact on the water environment.
The only things that should be flushed are stuff that has passed through you and the toilet
paper you use!
Flushing other items can cause many problems, both in the sewage works and later in the
marine environment.
Larger items such as sanitary towels and tampons block screens and clog pumps and pipes
in sewage treatment works. This results in reduction of flow, causing water to back up and overflow
either untreated through a CSO or into streets and gardens if all other routes get blocked. Water companies can spend a large amount time and money unblocking their systems that could otherwise be spent elsewhere.SRD that escapes from the sewage system causes aesthetic problems, littering our near shore waters and beaches. Such incidents could have detrimental effects on tourism. Some items such as sanitary towels will slowly decompose but other items (being made of plastic) will remain in the marine environment indefinitely.Surfers Against Sewage distributes butt bins & stickers to highlight the issue of cigarette butts and ensure that all our volunteers pass the message on!
Surfers Against Sewage
